Chapter 17: The Watcher in the Dark

Eli sat cross-legged on his bed, flipping through the pages of the tome his father had gifted him for his twelfth birthday a few weeks ago. The book had an earthy green gem embedded in its cover, and the wood had a strange, aged texture. His father had jokingly called it a "spellbook," saying if Eli was going to act like a little witch with all his experiments, he might as well have something fitting.

The tome was more than just a notebook for Eli—it was a symbol of everything he'd learned, a place to document his experiments with poisons, essences, and upgrades. But tonight, as he turned the pages, a strange feeling crept over him.

His fingers paused over a drawing. It wasn't one of his formulas or experiments—it was a person. A face.

Eli often drew people he encountered, but not just their features. He drew their essences—the colors and emotions that surrounded them. The person on this page was someone he hadn't seen in five years. He had met this man back in the hospital, but why was his essence showing up in Eli's mind now?

The eyes in the drawing seemed to follow him, and Eli could almost taste the feeling of being hunted. It was like the metallic tang of a lone wolf stalking its prey—wild, dangerous, and revolting. The taste made him shudder.

Eli glanced at the window and felt a sudden urge to close the blinds. His body tensed as he did so, but the uneasy feeling lingered. His mother was downstairs, but something about tonight felt wrong. Very wrong.

He reached under his bed, pulling out a small suitcase containing several vials of different powders and liquids. His fingers brushed against a blue vial.

Item: Ashes of Thunder

Level: 2

Attack: 100/100

Description: One-time use. This will be a "shocking" experience.

Eli grabbed another vial, this one containing a swirling yellow-red liquid with streaks of orange dancing through it.

Item: Liquid Fuel

Level: 1

Strength: 7/10

Description: What even is stamina drain? One-time use.

With his tome in hand and the vials in his pocket, Eli pushed the suitcase back under the bed. He didn't think he would be able to sleep tonight.

Eli walked downstairs, the tome still in his hand. His mother, Lorraine, looked up from the kitchen, giving him a puzzled expression.

"You're still up?" she asked. "You usually stay in your room after a long day with your friends."

"I'm not tired," Eli replied, trying to sound casual, though his mind was still racing with the unease from his room. He tried to make light of it, adding with a joking smile, "I just feel like I'm being watched."

His mother smiled at the comment, but Eli noticed a subtle shift in her essence. Worry. The colors around her twisted slightly, darkening as the weight of realization settled over her.

"Are you sure?" she asked, her voice more serious now.

Eli nodded, watching as she reached for the phone, her fingers trembling. He could feel the fear building in her, spiking when the first call she made went unanswered. She quickly dialed again, this time more urgently.

Eli stayed silent, sensing that his mother didn't want him to ask questions. But the atmosphere in the house had shifted. Something was very wrong.

Lorraine's heart was racing. She had come downstairs after changing her clothes, noticing that some of the files on her desk were out of place. She was meticulous about her things, and the subtle shift hadn't gone unnoticed. At first, she brushed it off as paranoia, but now, with Eli mentioning the feeling of being watched, her instincts screamed that something was wrong.

As a doctor, Lorraine was used to handling high-stress situations with calm, but this was different. This was her home. Her son. And if Eli could sense danger, she knew it had to be real.

Eli looked around, trying to focus through the overwhelming colors of essences that filled his house. Ever since his powers had further awakened, he'd struggled to filter out the excess, especially in familiar spaces like his home.

Then he saw it—a figure moving upstairs. Whoever it was, they were holding something. Something dangerous.

Without thinking, Eli leaped forward, shoving his mother out of the way just as the counter behind her exploded. The air filled with smoke and debris. Lorraine didn't scream—years of medical training had made her calm under pressure—but Eli could see the panic in her eyes as she scanned the room.

Eli barely had time to react before his mother reached into his pocket and pulled out the Ashes of Thunder vial.

To her, it looked like a chemical explosive she saw him make it would definitely not be as strong as a grenade but Eli knew better. It was thunder in a bottle.

Before he could stop her, she threw it toward the figure upstairs. The sound was deafening—a massive roar filled the house as the upstairs area swelled like a balloon and burst outward, the shockwave rattling the walls.

Eli felt the explosion rumble through his body, and though his ring granted him some protection, his mother had no such defence. He threw himself over her, shielding her as best he could as the chaos unfolded around them.

When Eli came to, the house was eerily quiet. His ears were ringing, but he could still hear the distant wail of police sirens approaching. His head throbbed as he looked around, dazed but conscious.

His mother lay beneath him, her ears bleeding from the explosion, though she was otherwise unharmed. Eli tried to move, but a sharp pain shot through his back. He reached behind him and felt something—a piece of debris lodged near his spine. Thankfully, it hadn't gone too deep, but the pain was intense.

He fumbled for the second vial—the Liquid Fuel—and quickly poured its contents into his mother's mouth.

Eli felt his own consciousness slipping as the exhaustion from the attack overwhelmed him. The world dimmed around him as he blacked out.